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¹ Therefore let us leave the commencement of the word of the Messiah, and let us proceed to the completion. Or will ye again lay another foundation for the repentance which is from dead works, and for the faith in God,² and for the doctrine of baptism, and for the laying on of a hand, and for the resurrection from the dead, and for the eternal judgment?³ We will do this, if the Lord permit.⁴ But they who have once descended to baptism, and have tasted the gift from heaven, and have received the Holy Spirit,⁵ and have tasted the good word of God, and the power of the world to come,⁶ ‡2 cannot again sin, and a second time be renewed to repentance; or a second time crucify and insult the Son of God.⁷ For the earth that drinketh the rain which cometh often upon it, and produceth the herb that is of use to those for whom it is cultivated, receiveth a blessing from God.⁸ But if it should put forth thorns and briers, it would have reprobation, and be not far from a curse, and its end would be a burning.

⁹ But, in regard to you, my brethren, we are persuaded better things, and things pertaining to life, although we thus speak.¹⁰ For God is not unrighteous, to forget your works, and your charity which ye have shown in his name, in that ye have ministered and do minister to the saints.¹¹ And we desire, that each one of you may show this same activity, for the completion of your hope, even to the end:¹² and that ye faint not; but that ye be emulators of them who by faith and patience have become heirs of the promise.¹³ For when God made the promise to Abraham, because there was none greater than himself by whom he could swear, he swore by himself;¹⁴ and said: Blessing, I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.¹⁵ And so he was patient, and obtained the promise.¹⁶ For men swear by one greater than themselves: and in every controversy that occurs among them, the sure termination of it is by an oath.¹⁷ Therefore, God, being abundantly willing to show to the heirs of the promise, that his promising was irreversible, bound it up in an oath;¹⁸ so that, by two things which change not, and in which God cannot lie, we, who have sought refuge in him, might have great consolation, and might hold fast the hope promised to us;¹⁹ which is to us as an anchor, that retaineth our soul, so that it swerveth not; and it entereth into that within the veil,²⁰ whither Jesus hath previously entered for us, and hath become a priest for ever, after the likeness of Melchisedec.